Oceanside receives RTFH grant, continues contracts with Interfaith

By Gary Warth

June 17, 2026

Oceanside will continue its efforts to help people avoid and overcome homelessness through diversion and resolution strategies and housing programs funded with grants from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

The City Council accepted two grants totaling $472,843 from RTFH at its June 17 meeting.

About $373,000 from one grant will be used to contract with Interfaith Community Services for outreach services and clinical support to help community members searching for housing or stability resources.

The services include housing navigation, income stabilization, diversion efforts and behavioral support. The remaining money from the grant will fund office space for case workers and other expenses.

A separate $100,000 grant will fund resolution strategies, which RTFH introduced to the county in 2019.

Resolution strategies offer flexible funding that can help people overcome homelessness through financial assistance and support at a relatively low cost.

Funds can be used for rental applications, transportation fees, utility deposits, moving costs, work-related supplies, vehicle repairs, DMV fees, utility arrears, hotel or motel stays as interim housing and deposit payments for permanent housing.

Also at the June 17 meeting, the City Council approved a $1.2 million contract with Interfaith Community Services for continued outreach, case management and stabilization services along the State Route 78 corridor.

Interfaith’s work is part of an $11.4 million state Encampment Resolution Fund grant the city received in partnership with Oceanside to clear encampments from the corridor and provide housing and services to people who had been living there.

Between April and July 2025, the effort has resulted in the removal of over 30 tents and about 30 to 35 tons of debris from environmentally sensitive areas, according to a staff report presented to the council.

About 170 people have received services through the ERF project and 75 people have been placed in permanent housing.

During the meeting, Housing and Neighborhood Services Department Management Analyst Sofia Hughes told council members that the team working on site expects to have housed about 100 people by the end of the year, and only two people who were housed have returned to homelessness.

“Most of the clients are seeking counseling services or have expressed interest in enrolling in the services, she said. Clients who are housed receive case management at least once a week to work on stabilization and income goals,” she said.

“Most of our clients, their homelessness has been three years or more,

 with about half of them six years or more,” Sofia added. “So moving inside has been a huge adjustment for them.”

Councilmember Jim Figueroa said he had been on the site where workers were engaging with homeless people and clearing encampments behind the mall off of College Boulevard and Plaza Drive, and he was impressed with what he saw.

“To be able to walk those encampments with this team and the partners while that program was being implemented and seeing the relationships established through the partners and through the city staff, it’s just phenomenal to see the work that this team has done,” he said.

“It’s been a huge success and it’s really night and day from what we’ve seen in the Tri-City area,” he said.